Bit of a longer chapter today than expected... it kinda got away from me lol


The familiar – unwelcome – chill permeated through to his bones. Cracking his eyes open felt like trying to pull apart stone. An unusual amount of warmth and return of sensation to his body soon followed, accompanied by the click of a latch. Murky blue eyes fluttered open to a graciously dimly lit room with three people standing not far off from him, and a fourth figure lingering just behind them.

"Sergeant Barnes, welcome back," Shuri spoke clearly. "How do you feel?"

Said man appeared to be shaking off the remnants of cryo-sleep from his limbs, lifting his right hand and testing his arm, wrist, and finger movement. Regaining some sense of awareness, he looked directly at Shuri, "fine." He took a step out of the cryo-freeze chamber, but had to quickly brace himself when his knees almost gave way. In his periphery, he saw T'Challa quickly move forward to grasp him by the forearm, and just barely stopped himself from automatically retaliating and attacking the helpful hand.

After a moment to gather himself, he spoke up again in a gravelly voice, "what… how long has it been?"

"It's just over a week since you re-entered cryo-sleep," Shuri answered. At his questioning frown, she elaborated, "we had to wake you to discuss your treatment options." She gestured towards a chair to his left, and saw that they took their own seats in front of him.

"Options?" he parroted, confused, hesitantly taking a seat. He was acutely aware of an empty fourth seat directly opposite from him.


After letting the Wakandans bring Barnes up to speed with magic, their request for a mind healer and what that entailed, and why they needed him to be aware and present, Harry was beckoned forward by T'Challa. He felt piercing blue eyes lock onto him the moment he stepped forward, and fought to keep his posture as reassuring and non-hostile as possible.

Meeting that gaze, he smiled and offered a hand, "Harry Potter, pleasure to make your acquaintance." Barnes stared at him, then his hand for a beat longer than comfortable, before carefully grasping his hand and pumping it once, before letting go.

Harry took the empty seat across from him as Jidea told Barnes all about his qualifications and why he was recommended for the case. Barnes said nothing throughout, dropped gaze unfocused. Harry watched Barnes' body language closely, but not too attentively that it might agitate the man. What followed was an awkward, unsure silence that had Jidea, T'Challa and Shuri glancing at each other intermittently.

Clearing his throat, Harry spoke. "If you don't mind, may I have some time to speak with Mr Barnes alone?" He watched the trio seemingly communicate wordlessly before T'Challa nodded and rose from his seat. The two ladies followed his lead and they cleared out of Shuri's private lab area, leaving Harry and Barnes in relative privacy.

"Mr Barnes—"

"Bucky."

"Hm?" Harry prompted.

"Th—they called me Bucky…"

Deciding not to focus on who 'they' was, Harry replied, "and what do you want to be called?" This got Barnes to look at him properly.

"I don't know," he answered in a near whisper.

Harry smiled sadly, "you can choose a name. Even if you already have one, but it doesn't feel like you just yet." Barnes blinked at him as if such an idea was ridiculous.

"My name… is James Buchanan Barnes," he recited slowly, tone unsure. "I… want you to call me James." He noticed a flicker of amusement pass through Harry's eyes only momentarily, causing him to become unsure about whether something was weird about what he just said.

"My father was named James, and James is also my middle name," Harry explained easily. "That is fine by me, James. Please call me Harry." He waited for a moment until James' gaze was back on his face before continuing. "If you're up to it, I'd like to break down the process of my work and the possible scenarios this may entail for you if you choose to go ahead with this form of treatment."

Jidea had already given Barnes a brief overview of magic and mind healing as a whole, but Harry had some specific ideas in mind on treating Barnes based on his notes thus far. James nodded, though he certainly didn't look sure.

"Before that though," Harry added offhandedly. "There's two things I will preface with. First, I want to inform you that I have some experience with combat. I'm telling you this to assure you that if for any reason you may lose control, I am confident in my ability to restrain you with minimal damage to anyone else. Of course, I will not harm you in any way nor will I impose my magic on you without your consent, unless in the case of an emergency." James seemed conflicted in his expression; both relieved and disbelieving.

"Secondly, in the spirit of transparency and understanding, I will endeavor to be as open to you as possible. Of course, you can expect the same level of doctor-patient confidentiality as muggle – that is, non-magical – medical services. However, I understand it can be hard to be willing to share, re-open or revisit old wounds even with an impartial third party. I myself have gone through a fair share of traumatic experiences, and believe it both therapeutic and encouraging to both parties to share a common struggle or concern."

At James' silent, questioning look, Harry delved into a brief overview of his story with Voldemort and fighting for his life. His own struggles of identity and differentiating where Voldemort ended and Harry began. Particularly from his fifth year onwards when his link to Voldemort grew stronger each day and Harry felt like he was becoming more and more like him and started distancing himself, and alienating those who were only trying to help. "So as you can guess, some would say I am probably more adept at combative and defensive magic than most," he quirked a small smile jokingly.

The corner of James' mouth twitched in slight amusement, before he spoke. "Show me."


When the two men had joined the other three in the main laboratory area, Shuri had not been expecting Harry to ask her to bring them to somewhere he could essentially fight Barnes. Then again, her brother was King and Black Panther, so she hardly bat a lash at the request and simply brought them to a fortified room they used to test new weapon prototypes safely. She, her brother and Jidea stood in the reinforced viewing area as Harry and Barnes stood face to face.

"When you're ready," Harry called out. With a flex of his wrist, his holly wand slipped snugly into his hand. He widened his stance slightly and he looked straight on at James.

One moment, James looked like a crippled man swaying on his feet. The next, he had dashed forward and was almost within arm's reach of Harry. Throwing up a wordless knockback jinx, Harry followed it with a firm "incarcerous." Thick ropes wound tightly around James, twisting and creaking as they tightened the more the other struggled. James managed to hook his fingers under some ropes and with a shout, he ripped free of some of the bindings before he'd even gone down.

"Petrificus totalus," had already left Harry's lips before James took another step towards him. His arm and legs snapped tight and straight along his flank, and he felt himself topple over backwards. He automatically tried to wince at the incoming impact, thought he realize he could barely even move to shut his eyes, before he heard Harry mutter "impedimenta," and his descent slowed enough that he only landed with a slight grunt.

There was a few seconds of silence where James tried his hardest to move something. The moment he came to realization that he could not was the moment Harry appeared just within his field of vision. "Finite," and with a wave of tingly pins-and-needles, James was abruptly freed. A hand entered his field of vision, and James' gaze traveled the length of it to see Harry's open, smiling face at the other end. He grabbed the offered hand gratefully and heaved back up onto his feet.

"What did you think?" Harry spoke up.

"…Weird," James answered candidly, eliciting a bark of laughter from Harry.

"I suppose you are quite a disadvantage without your other arm," Harry remarked thoughtfully. He saw James tense briefly before he shrugged. When they entered the viewing room, they were surprised to see a few more people they did not recognize there. Two men and a woman. "Hullo there," Harry greeted amicably.

The new individuals were practically vibrating but kept their mouths shut as they kept glancing at Jidea. Said woman eventually sighed and shook her head. "Harry, these are some of my team members. They were drawn over by the chance of seeing you duel."

"It was very impressive!" the woman couldn't hold it in any longer, to Harry's amusement. "That wandless flipendo at the start, your ease of casting, not to mention the speed!"

Harry felt some heat warming his cheeks as he waved away the compliments, "they were basic spells. Mr Barnes" – he heard the man mutter "James" quietly beside him – "simply needed to be incapacitated, not harmed. There isn't much need for any complex spellwork."

"In that case—"

"Please allow us the opportunity of a duel!" The two men had spoken over each other hastily. Harry was slightly taken aback at their eagerness.

"Thante, Oran!" Jidea admonished, rolling her eyes. "I apologize for this, Healer Potter."

Harry shook his head, "not at all. But I'm not sure—"

"I'd like to see that too," came James' voice softly. Harry turned to him in surprise. "As you said, I was at a disadvantage. If I… If I lost control, and I'm under their—that… if I become him again, he's a lot more ruthless than I am."

Harry's gaze softened at James' admission. True, it made sense that under the Winter Soldier programming, whoever had done this to him would have switched off any inhibitors of pain or mercy he may have. Not to mention if he had his prosthetic arm back. He'd seen some videos of the Winter Soldier's attack in Washington, DC, and knew the significant boost in power the arm gave him.

"Alright," Harry acquiesced, still looking at James. He turned to the other two men, "together, or one at a time?"

"Together?" one echoed incredulously. He glanced at the other man who was equally as baffled. "Uh—"

"Together it is then," Harry nodded, having took that as their answer. He was the only one who didn't realize the man had meant it as a question, not an answer, but had already walked back through the door into the large room. The other men scrambled to follow.

"Is it so surprising?" T'Challa asked from behind their window. James internally wondered the same.

"A proper wizarding duel is only ever between two individuals," Jidea clarified. "Though I suppose in Healer Potter's case… the odds had never been that fair."

"So this will be interesting then," Shuri commented, fiddling with her kimoyo beads and already recording the scene before them. James turned his attention back to the other side of the glass in anticipation.


"How'd you like to do this?" Harry called out. Truthfully, he had not engaged in a formal duel since that one time in second year, against Draco.

"We're all healers here," the younger of the two men spoke. "I say no-holds barred aside from the unforgiveables, obviously." Harry raised a brow at that. The older man too shot a look at him.

"We should at least refrain from severe bodily harm, Oran."

Oran rolled his eyes and huffed, "fine, fine. Until incapacitated or yield then."

"Agreed," nodded the other, who must be Thante.

"Agreed," echoed Harry.

The trio stood in a loose triangle, with the other two closer to one another than Harry. Harry's pointer finger rested along the length of his wand, his stance open. He inhaled deeply, and released it slowly through his mouth, calming his mind and sharpening his focus. Oran moved first, thrusting his wand out with a "expulso!"

Harry swung his arm up in a firm "protego," and in the same movement cast "expelliarmus" towards Thante who dodged just in time. "Confringo!"

"Bombarda!" the two blasting curses collided mid-way, causing the room to tremor slightly in the resulting explosion. "Immobulus," Thante wasted no time in retaliating.

"Reducio," Harry threw back at the spell, and the sparks of both slammed into each other and disintegrated, much to the surprise of the elder man. "Levicorpus," Harry whipped his hand out towards Oran, but Thante responded just as quickly with a "liberacorpus," before Oran had even completely been lifted off the ground. Grinning, Harry pivoted and dodged a stunner that flew by him.

"Incendio," Oran intoned, flames erupting from his wand. "Incendio tria," Thante thrust his wand in the same direction as Oran's and the flames more than tripled in size as they blazed towards Harry.

"Fiendfyre," Harry hissed, and as the living fire roared to life, he flicked out a wordless sectumsempra that caught Thante by surprised and knocked him onto his back violently. Harry spared no time refocusing on the blaze consuming the duo's incendio, and Oran's faint panicked yell. Spotting the figure dashing away from the flames, Harry flicked his wand "expelliarmus," and watched the dark stick fly up into the air.

Before the disarmed wand had even reached the peak of its flight, Harry firmly called out the fiendfyre counter-charm. The sentient flame roared in anguish as it was forcibly extinguished before it could consume the room. As the smoke cleared, Oran's figure could be seen, hands up by his face, "I yield!"

Harry barely spared the time to sag in relief before he dashed towards Thante, who was shakily healing himself. "Oh blimey, I'm so—"

"Don't apologize," Thante's stern voice cut off Harry's apology. "No serious harm done, and I consider myself lucky to have experienced first-hand a duel with Harry Potter."

Harry winced in habit at the way the man said his name, but said nothing as he muttered healing spells and dragged his wand over the welts littering Thante's skin. He staunchly ignored the slight tremor in his hands and thudding of his heart as his mind came down from the high of a battle; however short it may have been. Oran had joined them and joined in on the healing. Within seconds, Thante was good as new – though his robes begged to differ – just in time to see the four from behind the viewing window burst in through the door.

"Thante! You alright?" Jidea and Shuri called out.

"Nothing we couldn't handle, boss, princess," he responded, sitting up. The elder man then turned towards James, who had come in, but stayed a little behind the others. "Any doubts that Healer Potter could take on even the Winter Soldier?"

Harry blinked at hearing his name, his left hand still smeared with Thante's blood and right hand mid-casting a scourgify. He saw James' eyes rove over both Oran and Thante's unharmed forms, despite the destruction and marks evident on the walls and floor of the room.

"None."


Me: says not to expect any action in chapter 1 notes.

Also me: writes 2k worth of action. lmao soml

P.S. I know that's not the actual incantation to fiendfyre (its unknown iirc) but I wanted him to verbalize it. Also I know sectumsempra might fall under 'severe bodily harm' but Harry cast it non-verbally so its power/effectiveness would've been lower. And he was obviously counting on the fight to end then so he could start healing immediately.